Comfort
by watchitstark
Summary: Written for Adephegia's Absurd Pairing Competition. HG/ST Both of them were just looking for silence, and instead they found Comfort in each other's arms.


**Comfort**

**Challenge:** Adephegia's Absurd Pairing Competition

Sybil looked around her; this was all she had left, this huge castle in the middle of the Scottish countryside, and now it's in ruins. One of the only homes that she had ever known now lay broken at her feet, and she just wanted to either flip out or cry tears of frustration. Many thought that she was just a batty old woman, but that was just a front and really she was just the same as everyone else. As she tore her gaze away from the once imposing castle she noticed that everyone was either celebrating or crying over the dead, and she didn't feel like doing either, she just felt unbearably tired. Dragging herself up off the wet grass she wondered over to the main entrance where she then entered the broken castle. She straight away headed for the stairs, going to one place that she knew no one else would go; the North Tower, her classroom and her home. Running up flights and flights of stairs she ignored the shouts and cries of the injured, mourning and jubilant, her mind set on one thing; did the fighting get all the way to her tower? When she got to the hatch she summoned the ladder and climbed up through and headed into her classroom; relieved to see that it was in pretty good condition. Then she was startled by the presence of a brunette that she hadn't met face to face for four years. Afore mentioned brunette had a bottle of something that was smoking and her back was against the wall. Mocha brown eyes stared unseeingly at a purple chintz armchair as she took another swig of the noxious concoction held in a loose grip.

"Miss Granger?" She asked incredulously, she was so strong, and Sybil had always admired her for standing up for what she believed in, even if it meant she stomped out of her lesson. Mocha eyes shot up from the apparently interesting chintz armchair and looking in shock at the professor in front of her.

"Professor?" She asked in the same incredulous tone, although Hermione quickly reasoned in her head that it was her classroom and quarters so she shouldn't be shocked.

"This is my classroom." She pointed out and Hermione laughed.

"I suppose it is." Her professor was a fright; her hair was even worse than Hermione's, her glasses had been knocked skew if, there was soot on her face, most of her bangles were missing and her scarves looked singed. But then again, Hermione wasn't looking much better; her hair was bad, not as bad as Trelawney's though, there was a cut on her cheek and her clothes had burn holes and were covered in dried blood; she'd helped some of the injured on her way up here. Sybil just chuckled sadly then sighed and sat next to Hermione, taking the bottle from where Hermione was loosely clutching it in her right hand and took a long draught before placing it back in the hand that hadn't moved.

"We're in the same boat us two." Sybil said suddenly after about five minutes of silence.

"How?"

"We're both here trying to get away from everyone for thing, We're not sure where we're going to stand when things go back to 'normal'," As she said this she made quotation marks with her fingers, "We've both not got any family anymore," Hermione cut her off.

"How do you know what happened to my family." She asked sharply.

"Minerva told Filius who kept on raving about what a marvellous piece of magic it was. I must say that I agree." Hermione blushed, and she looked to her right, finally noticing that her companion had dropped all pretence, she had taken off all her scarves, bangles and the ridiculous glasses, and had dropped her usual misty tones.

"It really is all an act isn't it?" Hermione asked.

"Yes." She sighed heavily. "I've only made two real prophecies in the whole of my life, and both of them about Harry Potter. The first is what caused You-Know-Who's downfall. The second was witnessed by Harry and I basically told him that he had to kill or be killed." She looked down at the bottle in her hands. "I can read tea leaves though, and palms. That just takes practise. And there really was always death in Harry's future, and he was destined to die painfully. He just out-smarted Voldemort a ridiculous amount of times." Hermione laughed quietly.

"You know, I've always held quite a lot of contempt for you." Hermione said conversationally.

"Erm… Thanks?" Hermione chuckled again.

"You were just such a fraud; there was never anything to prove all the things that you taught."

"There's nothing to prove that we truly exist and yet we do." She countered and Hermione contemplated that.

"I suppose… But I always try not to think about that; my curiosity makes my brain hurt." They shared a laugh.

"I always had respect for you. You stood up for what you thought was right, even if you did end up stomping out my classroom."

"I was tired and stressed." She defended, "plus, I was using a Time Turner that year so that I could take every single class that the school was offering."

"They trusted you enough to have a Time Turner?" She asked, shocked. "Yep. I was always a favourite, wasn't I? Minerva trusted me. I didn't abuse it either until I saved Sirius Black and Buckbeak the Hippogriff with it."

"You saved a murderer?"

"No, I saved an innocent man who had been wrongly accused."

"You don't believe that Stubby Boardman rubbish do you?" Hermione laughed.

"No, I don't. Peter Pettigrew cut off his own finger, killed all those Muggles and turned into a rat, thus framing Sirius."

"But he betrayed the Potters?"

"Nope. That was Pettigrew too. Sirius changed the Secret Keeper to Peter because Sirius was the obvious choice, and Voldemort would probably go for him. It would have worked too id that little shit hadn't have been a Voldemort supporter."

"And the Ministry still don't know."

"Me, Harry and Ron tried to tell Fudge but he wouldn't listen." Hermione shrugged. "It doesn't matter now anyway, he died at the end of Fifth Year."

"Why did the public never find out about it?"

"Because only the Order of the Phoenix and six kids knew."

"I never was part of the Order. I was a coward. I never planned to be part of the fighting either." Hermione looked down at the empty bottle that had ended up in her hands again then got up and crossed the room, opening the cupboard and grabbing another two bottles.

"You certainly have made yourself at home." Hermione laughed and handed her one of them. "Come on, we may as well see what condition my quarters are in." She got up off the floor and crossed the room, over to a door behind the teacher's desk. She muttered something and pushed the door open, stepping over the threshold with Hermione close behind her. The rooms were in pristine condition; the fighting had never got all the way up here, and somehow the tower had managed to survive.

"How did it survive?" Hermione asked shock obvious in her voice.

"I have absolutely no idea." Sybil turned to notice that Hermione was much closer than she had originally thought, and she could feel her breath on her face. Both witched were shocked, but quite inebriated so a part of them was happy to let what was inevitably happen, happen.

"You're quite nice when you're not trying to act like a seer."

"You're quite nice when you're not being a Know-It-All." Sybil shot back with a crooked smile before hungry lips crashed together in a needy, passionate kiss. The kiss deepened almost immediately as hands traced curves and they fell onto the purple sofa, clothes being ripped off and lips never parting from the kiss.

"Wake up. I bet that everyone wants to know where the smartest and most useful part of The Golden Trio is." The brunette grumbled and stretched, a headache pounding at the back of her skull. She blinked open bleary eyes and looked up into the smirking face of her professor.

"What're we gonna do?" She groaned.

"Go back to how it was before." She said simply. "We can carry on ignoring each other and you can go do whatever you want to do. This wasn't a night made of love; we just needed someone to hold onto." Hermione nodded and started to collect up her clothes.

"You should drop the pretence. I'm sure that Minerva wouldn't find you so annoying then." They both laughed.

"Nah, there always has to be one weirdo in every workplace."

"Can't Professor Binns fill that spot?" Hermione asked and then walked out the door. Neither witch ever spoke to the other again, although they both looked back on that night as a happy memory, and not something to regret.

**A/N: Okay, so I never thought that I'd write one of these, not even something I considered. I blame Adephegia. :P**


End file.
